UPDATE: Due to Kim Davis's Legal team, on her behalf, declining our offer of protection we are standing down. 

Please see this article for more information. http://oathkeepers.org/oktester/kim-davis-legal-team-declines-oath-keepers-offer-to-protect-her-against-unlawul-arrrest/

In this video, Stewart Rhodes and some of the Oath Keepers national and local leadership discuss the real issues behind what is happening in Rowan County, Kentucky.  We have had boots on the ground there since last week and will continue to have a presence.  Stewart Rhodes reached out personally to Davis’s legal counsel to offer protection to Kim, to ensure that she will not be illegally detained again. We would like to stress in the strongest terms possible that we are doing this not because of her views on gay marriage, but because she is an elected public servant who has been illegally arrested and held without due process.

STATEMENT BY STEWART RHODES:

We believe Federal District Court Judge David Bunning grossly overstepped his bounds and violated Mrs Davis’ due process rights, and in particular her right to a jury trial.  This judge has assumed unto himself not just the powers of all three branches of government, but has also taken on the powers of judge, jury, and “executioner.”  What matters to us is not whether you agree with her position on gay marriage or her decision to not issue marriage licenses.  What matters is that the judge is violating the Constitution in his anger and desire to punish her for going against his will.  We are already being subjected to an unconstitutional imperial presidency, that grew exponentially under both Bush and Obama, expanding the claimed war powers of the president to swallow up our Bill of Rights and circumvent jury trial.  The result is an executive branch that claims the absurd power to declare any American an “unlawful combatant” on the say-so of the president alone.

Now we see the rise of an imperial judiciary that not only legislates from the bench but is attempting to expand their “contempt” power to likewise swallow up our Bill of Rights and circumvent jury trial.   Both methods are used to allow the powerful office holder to merely point his finger and have his opponent thrown behind bars without a grand jury indictment and without being found guilty by a jury of their peers.  No innocent until proven guilty before a jury. Just “guilty” because the leader says so.  That is a dictatorship, whether done by a president or by a judge.  No one man should have that kind of power in his hands alone to decide guilt and impose a sentence of indefinite detention. Under our Constitution, that dictatorial power does not exist.  We must stand against this.  And so we will protect her and prevent it from happening again.   – Stewart Rhodes

Oath Keepers offer of protection for embattled Clerk Kim Davis

**_Read:_** [**_The Oath Keepers Are Ready to Go to War with the US Government_**](http://www.vice.com/read/miner-threat-0000747-v22n9)

In the days since Kim Davis was [freed from jail](http://www.vice.com/read/noted-homophobe-kim-davis-is-no-longer-in-jail-vgtrn), many conservatives&#x2014;including Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee&#x2014;have held up the anti-gay Rowan county clerk as a hero. Even the créme de la créme of radical right-wing militants, the [Oath Keepers](http://oathkeepers.org), offered armed security to her whenever she returned to work.

Davis headed back to work on Monday, and although her first order of business was [letting everyone know disobeying the Big JC isn't cool](http://www.vice.com/read/kim-davis-is-back-at-work-but-still-wont-sign-those-marriage-licenses-vgtrn-950), she eventually found time to address the Oath Keepers' proposal and turned them down.

"Upon request by Kim Davis' legal team, Oath Keepers is canceling the planned security detail for Mrs. Davis in Morehead, Kentucky," Stewart Rhodes, the group's founder, said, according to [TPM](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kim-davis-declines-oath-keepers). "We will, of course, respect her wishes, and are hereby issuing a stand-down for our security volunteers who were planning on deploying to Morehead, Kentucky on Monday."

As a group, the Oath Keepers [vow](http://oathkeepers.org/oktester/about/) to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." So far, that has translated into actions like ["protecting the weak" in Ferguson](http://www.vice.com/read/leader-of-oath-keepers-says-the-group-is-in-ferguson-to-protect-the-weak-1201), [battling the federal government](http://www.vice.com/read/miner-threat-0000747-v22n9) over an Oregon gold mine, and wanting to be Kim Davis's bodyguard. But now, with Davis's snub, it seems they'll have to find a new anti-gay martyr to protect.

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Kim Davis Turned Down the Oath Keepers' Offer of Armed Security

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Kim Davis Turned Down the Oath Keepers' Offer of Armed Security

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